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MARGARET HALEY TELLS OF CHANCES
SELL CHICAGO SCHOOL TEACHERS
TO
At the finish of a two-hour speed
full of names and dates and figure's
Margaret Haley, business represen
tative of the Chicago Teachers' Fed
eration, spoke slowly and softly,
something wistful in her voice, and
said to the city council schools com
mittee: "You can take olir records for sev
enteen years back and you are free
to examine any journal of accounts,
vouchers or assessments our organ
ization has.
"The resistance power of the
teachers of this city which has de
veloped in these seventeen years is
one of the best things the civic life
of Chicago has.
"That woman, Catherine Goggin,
whom you honored by placing her
dead body to lie in state in
this council chamber a few months
ago we thought of her on
June 27 when there was that pitiful
spectacle in the board, of education
rooms, when dozens of teachers
came for the first time in their lives
to the board rooms and pointing at
this and that member of the board
asked: 'Who is that member and
who is that other one and why did
he vote against me?'
"I tell, you gentlemen, this com
munity will not stand for these meth
ods. The people will not permit effi
cient teachers in this city to be
thrown on the mercies of politicians.
"These teachers will not be found
working against you when you are
advancing the interests of the effi
cient teachers, the school children
and the parents. The teachers as a
body will co-operate with you at
every step in the interest of the pub
lic schools, our greatest institution."
In the following allegations by
Miss Haley she furnished in every
case supporting evidence consisting
of documents or the names of cor
roborating witnesses that can be
called by council committee.
1. William Rothman, former chair
man finance committee of school
board and ex-ofiicio head of teachers'
pension board, is a big figure of the
"invisible government" behind the
school board. Rothmann started out
to destroy the Teachers' Federation
after it had beaten a pet bill of his
at Springfield by which pension fund
control through the teachers would
be ended. Rothmann furthermore
has a further motive in that he wants
revenge against the teachers because
they reprinted parts of the Merriam
efficiency commission report show
ing that while Rothmann was the
head of that board, somebody was
grabbing a graft of from $12,000 to
$20,000 a year through non-payment
of interest on funds held by the
board.
2. Offers from Jacob M. Loeb, pres
ident school board, to enter into po
litical diokers were rejected by Miss
Walev and the federation. In Loeb's
list of -68 teachers to be dismissed
were eight members of the canvas
sing board that counted the votes of
the election wherein 4,600 teachers
voted with the federation against the
Rothmann-Loeb legislative bill for
control of teachers' pension funds.
The assessment slip which J. Joeb
testified about before Baldwin com
mittee as federation "slush fund"
was only an ordinary mortuary fund
lew to pay for burial of teachers.
3. The teachers' pension fund,
now amounting to over $1,000,000,
was sought constantly by Wm. Roth
mann for control by him under the
same conditions by which he former
ly controlled the police pension fund,
when $12,000 to $20,000 a year was
lost through non-payment of inter
est. He asked a conference with
federation pension board members
and gave out an announcement that
they had promised him they would
support his bill. Instead of support
ing it, the federation called three big
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